Container gardening pots

[Anonymous]

Where do you shop for big containers/pots if I need like 10 of them? Fabric bag pot, clay pot. Metal pot, wood pots, clay pot, resin pot, plastic pot, Rubbermaid container etc, which ones are better & safer to grow vegetables? And, I see some pots that are good looking but quite expensive.

[Anonymous]

Avoid plastic - they'll break within a year or two after sitting in the sun.

Where are you putting these containers? On a balcony? Deck? Could you build a wooden raised bed instead? Consider drainage.

Personally, I like a mixture of terracotta and ceramic pots, though I have a couple of old metal buckets as well. They're more expensive, but look nicer in the long run and age better.

[Anonymous]

I have a mix of plastic, resin (heavy plastic), and fabric pots, baskets with coir liners, and also wood raised beds. Costco is a good source for large pots and sometimes raised beds (look online). Part of the reason I garden in containers is the ability to move the containers around, so while ceramic looks great I find it too heavy to be ideal.

The fabric bags are new for me this year and I'm planning to put the seasonal veggies in them -- the annuals that have to be replaced every year. Tomatoes, peppers, that kind of thing. Maybe lettuce and peas although the shape isn't quite right. I just bought a pack at Costco but you can also get them from Gurneys and similar gardening places.

My very big resin pots from Costco ($70 for 2, I think) have permanent plants like berries, grapes, and potted trees. I may eventually move those plans to whiskey barrels but for now the pots are more mobile.

I have lettuce and peas in my raised beds. You can get bed kits online or from Home Depot.

I have asparagus in my plastic rectangular planters now, but in past years these planters have held peppers and cucumbers. They can sit alone or be in stands or holders. Be aware the cheaper plastic planters bow out at the sides when full.

I have strawberries in my lined baskets, and also strawberries in ceramic or plastic pots.

[Anonymous]

Costco.

[Anonymous]

Big Lots is great for plastic pots price wise.

I bought potato bags this year on amazon. I'll see how that goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Avoid plastic - they'll break within a year or two after sitting in the sun.

Where are you putting these containers? On a balcony? Deck? Could you build a wooden raised bed instead? Consider drainage.

Personally, I like a mixture of terracotta and ceramic pots, though I have a couple of old metal buckets as well. They're more expensive, but look nicer in the long run and age better.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Costco.

I just got ones from costco. Two weeks of sitting in the sun and they still smell horrible. They're all made in China, who knows what they put in them that they are still off-gassing that badly. Just get terra cotta or ceramic. Target has relatively inexpensive ones.

[Anonymous]

I have large plastic pots I got from Home Depot over 10 years ago that are still standing. The ones I bought in recent years have broken more easily so the quality has gone down.
I grow about 80 peppers and eggplants in containers in my backyard. I got a bunch of those orange paint buckets from Home Depot, drilled holes in them and use them as planters. Inelegant but very functional and long-lasting and the plants grow great. They are too small for tomatoes though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have large plastic pots I got from Home Depot over 10 years ago that are still standing. The ones I bought in recent years have broken more easily so the quality has gone down.
I grow about 80 peppers and eggplants in containers in my backyard. I got a bunch of those orange paint buckets from Home Depot, drilled holes in them and use them as planters. Inelegant but very functional and long-lasting and the plants grow great. They are too small for tomatoes though.

You could always spray paint them and non-offensive color.

I found a cooper color spray paint that even looks a bit textured and sprayed all of my outdoor mismatched pots to the same color.

If it bothers you of course